KANSAS: Tell House Ed Committee to vote YES on HB 2621

KANSAS: Tell House Ed Committee to vote YES on HB 2621

February 15, 2014

Great news! Thanks to the hard work of so many activists, especially our friends at Kansans Against Common Core, we finally have a solid bill in the House Education Committee (HB 2621) that will be heard next week!

Right now, your voice is critical in this discussion. We must ensure that these Kansas legislators follow through in pushing back against federal overreach and restoring authority over education to the Kansas people.

A quick recap of Kansas’ Common Core history:

The Kansas Board of Education adopted the national K-12 Common Core standards in English and math in 2010 in order to score points on a federal grant competition – a competition that we did not win.

As a result we now have the Common Core standards (Kansas College and Career Ready Standards), and they are of poor quality:

They fail to prepare students for studies in science, technology, engineering and math. They put our students two years behind their peers in high-performing countries by eighth grade, and they are even worse for high school.

In English language arts, the Common Core severely de-emphasizes the study of classic literature in favor of drab and simplistic “informational” texts. It does this despite the fact that the overwhelming evidence is that children should be reading more, not less, classic literature.

Prominent child psychiatrists and psychologists have heavily criticized the standards as being age-inappropriate for young children.

The Kansas State Board of Education also adopted the Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS) in June 2013. The NGSS standards fail to prepare children for college science courses.

Kansas needs to reclaim its sovereignty by exiting the Common Core and developing top-notch standards that will be under Kansas’ control! The state legislature can do this with the passage of a simple law – HB 2621.

TAKE ACTION!

First, forward this to as many Kansas friends and family as possible who will take action too! Please call AND e-mail (with the form below) the five most important members of the House Education Committee, and respectfully tell them to support HB 2621. After this, please select the rest of the email addresses below and ask the rest of the committee members to support HB 2621. There is not time to wait – they must lead Kansas out of the Common Core THIS session.

If you can only make a few phone calls, here are the most important representatives to contact:

We are writing to urge you to please take action on Common Core this session, and vote YES on HB 2621.

The Common Core is a big-government, top-down approach to education, and it is not good for students or the future of Kansas.

The Common Core Standards are of poor quality and will fail to prepare our students for studies in science, technology, engineering, and math. By eighth grade, the standards put our students two years behind their peers in high-performing countries and even further behind in high school.

In English language arts, the Common Core severely de-emphasizes the study of classic literature and instead implements drab and simplistic “informational” texts. We know that critical thinking is the key to success, and the evidence shows that children should be reading more, not less, classic literature.

Child psychiatrists and psychologists have heavily criticized the Standards as being age-inappropriate for young children.

Kansas jumped into Common Core without evaluating the costs, but now we know from multiple sources the high costs of this initiative — Kansas taxpayers cannot afford the Common Core!

We know that Kansas cannot depend on the federal government to look out for the best interests of our children, so please defend Kansans and restore our authority in education by removing us from the Common Core State Standards Initiative this legislative session!